"Being debt free is better than spending feels."
This blog will follow the ups and downs of living on a beer budget ($40,000/year) in Ottawa. I am a 20-something girl who came out of 2 degrees with $33,000 in student loans. Through dedication and hard work that was paid off in less than a year and I now own a home. I am not a financial planner or expert, but have developed an interest in my finances and how to make the most of my income. Questions? Email me at bigcitybeerbudget@gmail.com

Monday, December 6, 2010

Incredible Generousity

Last week the non-profit organization I work for held its annual gala, breakfast, and awards ceremony. All events were filled with great celebration and stories of the work that has been done over the past year.

This year's gala was filled with dozens of live and silent auction items. The most impressive purchase of the night went as follows:
- Auction of a $35,000 Toyota car.
- 2 bidders right until the end.
- winner bids $32,000 and wins the car.
- winner donates the car back.
- losing bidder buys car for $31,000.

At first I didn't understand....he's giving the car back? Then it hit me, the first winning bidder paid $32,000 and received NOTHING when he save the car back to be auctioned off again. I know that he'll be able to write off a good portion of this, but wow, $32,000!!!

In the future, when I've established myself career-wise and financially, I would love to be able to donate even 1/10th of this contribution to my favourite charities.

2 comments:

Yeah, it's cool to see that, isn't it? I work in the nonprofit sector too. I used to be in fundraising, in gifts & wills, and it was so inspiring to see the contributions people were willing to make. Hundreds of thousands or even million dollar gifts.

FB, it actually makes sense. He, in essence, made a $32,000 gift, but then also forced the losing bidder to also make a $31,000 gift. If he had not donated the car back and just made a donation, chances are the losing bidder would not have made such a major gift himself. He was responsible for basically doubling the gift.